As "Kommersant" found out, by February 10, 1923 investment companies that are accredited for the sale of privatized state property, must submit their justifying application in the Ministry of Economy-- what assets are ready for sale and why they should do it. CEO of Sberbank, German Gref has already entered into the competition for assets, recommending subsidiary of the bank - OAO "Russian auction house» to Elvira Nabiullina as the seller, including for a package in the NCSP and "Apatite". In this case, the bank itself intends to specialize in the sale of state-owned packages at the exchange, and in the case of purchase of Troika Dialog - to attract strategic investors through it all without any auctions.

 

As source close to the Ministry of Economy told Kommersant, on January 27, the ministry held a meeting at which "actually started on the selection of vendors for the implementation of state assets." Its participants were invited to submit their applications on a variety of objects by February, 10. Moreover, potential sellers should specify the benefits that will provide the most favorable deal for the state. According to the interlocutor of Kommersant, such applications are necessary because of the fact that the earlier "list was formed more by the principle of selecting the best-known and" venerable ", but did not consider neither possible conflict between them in the fight for the most attractive assets, nor the selection criteria for of a transaction or form of payment for services rendered. "

The most attractive assets that are going to competed by investment companies, are considered to be 25.1% stake in the generating company TGK-5 (the initial price of the pack - 6.43 billion rubles.), 51% of the shares in Tolmachevo Airport (1,105,000,000 rubles), 20% of the shares of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP; of the company's capitalization on the LSE - $ 2,8 billion - state-owned stake could cost about $ 0.56 billion), etc.

Let us recall that the Government approved a list of 23 investment companies that should take part in the implementation of the State Property Privatization Program for 2011-2013 (as well as those assets which were not sold in 2010), at the end of last year. Among the potential buyers there were the main organizers of the M & A-transactions both in Russia and abroad: Alfa-Bank, Sberbank, "Troika Dialog", The Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS Bank and others. Three-year "sale" of government property, according to Ministry of Economy, shall bring the federal budget about 1 trillion rubles.

Competition among sellers has already begun.  "Kommersant" possesses a letter by the head of Sberbank, German Gref, to the Economic Development Minister, Elvira Nabiullina (January 27, N 01-253), in which Mr. Gref (on behalf of the Savings Bank), "being interested in the development of good practices of privatization of state property in Russia», offers to involve the "Russian auction house" (RAD) into the sales of state assets as an organizing part.

According to the list of affiliates of December 31, 2010, 25% of the shares are owned directly by Savings Bank, another 33% by OAO "Fond Imuschestva St. Petersburga"('The State Property Fund of St.Petersburg') and OOO "Russky Juvelir" (its co-owners on an equal footing are the Head of Information Management and Advertising and the first deputy director of the Property Fund of St. Petersburg, Maria Marakovskaya and Dinara Useinova accordingly). OAO (Joint Stock Company) is a joint project of the Savings Bank and the Fund's assets, established in accordance with the decree of the Government dated August 19, 2009. While the total amount of transactions by RAD is 9.5 billion rubles. One of the biggest one is a sale of mortgaged property in the Savings Bank of a retail chain ALPI (4 billion rubles.) as well as land plots of a construction firm LEK, and the sale of privately owned palace Kusheleva-Bezborodko in St. Petersburg.

German Gref said in his speech that RAD "may be a seller of a significant number of privatization objects of various scale". Thus, a simple sample of privatization objects included in the forecast plan offers more than 250 shares and real estate for the regions with most vigorous activity of RAD"(and this is excluding the objects that can be included in the forecast plan for privatization programs of the past " ). German Gref offers to use the sale of NCSP and the Murmansk Commercial Sea Port," Apatite ", 100% of the Arkhangelsk Trawl Fleet and the Murmansk Marine Fishing Port that were excluded in 2010 from the strategic list, as a «"reference objects", the sale of which is significant both for the Russian budget, and for the positioning of RAD as a professional seller of the property".

Eventually, Savings Bank could appear in three capacities in the list of potential buyers of state assets: directly as a bank, through RAD and if the transaction is held, then through "Troika Dialog", which may soon pass under the control of the State Bank (for details about the transaction see Kommersant of February, 1). According to Mr. Gref, RAD will be the best seller, and the CEO of auction house Andrey Stepanenko explained that «the Savings Bank, Troika Dialog, and RAD are interested in various segments of the property to be privatized due to the specifics of each of these structures." "The bank itself is going to sell assets on the stock exchange," Troika Dialog " will seek for strategic investors for transfer of objects without auctions. Therefore Savings supports the proposals of RAD, which serves as the All-Russian auction site",  the interlocutor of Kommersant said. Why did not  Sberbank fight for the right to sell the NCSP? RAD could not explain this to Kommersant.